Þingvellir

A thirty minute drive northeast from Reykjavik will take you to Thingvellir, site of the old Althingi, where the Icelandic parliament was held every year. It was, essentially, a celebrated campground where chieftains would meet to hammer out laws and try difficult cases, and not much is left to see of that. The site, however, is fantastic. A wide continental rift valley between mountain ranges with the country’s largest lake in the middle offers gorgeous vistas, tortured gorges, and of course, a sense of history.